Ted Kennedy Jr. to run for state Senate

Former President Bill Clinton left, speaks with U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., center, and Ted Kennedy Jr., right, after a Yale Law School ceremony honoring his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton at Yale University, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, in New Haven, Conn. Clinton received the Yale Law School Association Award of Merit, which is presented annually to those who have made a substantial contribution to public service or the legal profession. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

An American political dynasty has set its sights on the “new frontier” of the 21st Century: Connecticut.

Ted Kennedy Jr., the eldest son of the late lion of the U.S. Senate, will make his debut Tuesday as a candidate for the Legislature in his hometown of Branford, multiple sources tell Hearst Connecticut Media.

The 52-year-old Wesleyan and Yale-educated health care lawyer has scheduled an announcement for 6 p.m. Tuesday in front of the Blackstone Library, where sources say the Democrat will declare his candidacy in the 12th Senatorial District.

Since 2002, the district has been represented by Edward Meyer, of Guilford, who is retiring at age 79 and has given his blessing to Kennedy to run. In 1967, Kennedy’s uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, appointed Meyer as a federal prosecutor. The district includes Branford, Durham, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison and North Branford.

By Kennedy standards, running for state Senate is hardly the lofty office that some Democratic standard bearers had envisioned for the married father of two.

Kennedy is said to have declined several attempts by high-profile Democrats to recruit him to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts vacated by John Kerry, the secretary of state.

Sources familiar with the thinking of Kennedy, who hosted a fundraiser for the Connecticut Democrats last year at his family’s fabled Hyannis Port compound on Cape Cod, say that the last thing the unassuming public servant-in waiting wants is a media circus.

7 Responses

How could RFK have appointed Meyer to be a U.S. Attorney? Kennedy was a U.S. Senator at the time representing New York. Senators do not appoint federal prosecutors, The President of the United States does. Get your facts straight!